WH girls overcome shaky start to win 4th straight OCC title
The West Holmes girls basketball team is clicking at the right time. The Lady Knights recently clinched a share of their fourth consecutive Ohio Cardinal Conference title and will begin tournament play on Feb. 21 with a lot of momentum.
The West Holmes girls basketball team has been quite successful in recent years.
The Lady Knights found themselves in unfamiliar territory in late December after back-to-back losses to rivals Mansfield Senior and Hiland by a combined 51 points dropped them to 4-4 on the season.
That shaky start proved to be a turning point for West Holmes, which has won 11 of its last 13 games as of Feb. 10.
“We lost a couple of games early that I think kind of humbled us a little bit, and we realized that we have to go a little harder in practice and play a little harder, and if we want to be as successful as we have in the past, we have to put in the work, and it’s not just going to come just because we show up, and we have to come and play hard,” Lady Knights coach Lindsy Belden said. “We didn’t really dwell on the fact that we didn’t win a bunch of games early on, but we also talked about how we have to go a little bit harder and do things a little bit differently, and (my players) were receptive to that.”
A key to WH’s recent winning stretch has been unselfish attitudes by its players, who have accepted their roles, which often fluctuate on any given night.
“I think they’re starting to figure out just that idea of everybody having a role, and sometimes your role looks different on different nights, and that’s OK,” Belden said.
West Holmes avenged its earlier loss to Mansfield Senior by going on the road on Jan. 27 and pulling out a 30-28 win over the state-ranked Lady Tygers, who hadn’t lost a conference game up to that point.
“It came down to (my players) really wanted that,” Belden said. “That’s been their goal all season is to win the league again. They were like, ‘Well, if we want to win the league, we have to win tonight.’ They were determined to get that (win).”
The Lady Knights defeated Mount Vernon and Madison in early February to earn a share of their fourth consecutive conference title.
“Prior to four years ago, we weren’t competitive in the conference,” Belden said. “We’re now back to that point where the expectation is going to be from here on out to win the conference. This group of seniors have won it (outright) or shared it all four years, and so that has kind of set that tone of this is the expectation, and I think we’re going to see that from here on out.”
West Holmes wrapped up its regular season at home against Clear Fork on Feb. 15. It earned the overall fifth seed in the Division II East District, which is split into two smaller districts — East 1 and East 2. It will begin tournament play at home against Minerva in a sectional semifinal on Feb. 21.
The Lady Knights have lost in the district championship game each of the past three seasons, so getting over that hump and advancing to regionals for the first time since 2016 is their focus.
Along the way they will likely get a chance to avenge their season-opening 39-28 loss to Dover in the district semifinals. Top-seeded West Muskingum, which recently clinched its first conference title since 2012, is another formidable foe in the East 2 District. They wouldn’t face the Lady Tornadoes until the district title game, though.
“I think we’ve gotten better as the year went on, which is a huge thing for us,” Belden said. “You always want to be playing your best right now, and I think we are. I think we’re in the right spot. Our team goal is to win the district, so I think everybody has the same mindset and has the same goal in mind.”